60-second Science

Plant species in China's Hengduan Mountains exploded in diversity eight million years ago—right when the mountains were built. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

Researchers have trotted out data that show a combination of whipping and stomping forces is what causes laces to unravel without warning. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research CEO Todd Sherer, a neuroscientist, talks about the state of Parkinson's disease and research.

Researchers have found the earliest evidence of bugs in the Cimex genus co-habitating with humans, in Oregon's Paisley Caves. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

The storm that swept across the Rockies in September 2013 unleashed huge amounts of sediment downstream, doing the work of a century of erosion. Julia Rosen reports. 

The low-end estimate for how much the world's spiders eat is some 400 million tons of mostly insects and springtails.  

A study of house cats and shelter cats found that the felines actually tended to choose human company over treats or toys.  

Astronomer Caleb Scharf weighs what ever more exoplanets mean in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Animal Planet's series The Zoo shows viewers the biological, veterinary and conservation science at a modern zoo.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers measured the intensity of the universe's ultraviolet background radiation, and say it may be strong enough to strip small galaxies of star-forming gas. Christopher Intagliata reports.

Japanese macaques at the receiving end of aggression tend to then take it out on a close associate or family member of the original aggressor.  

Researchers used ancient climate cycles to confirm the solar system’s chaotic planetary orbits. An Earth–Mars collision is one distant outcome. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mice that lost weight and then gained back more than they lost maintained an obesity-type microbiome that affected biochemicals involved in either burning or adding fat--suggesting interventions.  

A meta-analysis found that being of low socioeconomic status was associated with almost as many years of lost life as was a sedentary lifestyle.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In fewer than a dozen generations bumblebee-pollinated plants were coaxed to develop traits that made them even more pleasing to the bees. Christopher Intagliata reports.

For every two species lost in a grassland, the remaining flowers there bloomed a day earlier—on par with changes due to rising global temperatures. Christopher Intagliata reports.

Exposure to specific microbes when an infant is less than a year old seems to have a protective effect against the child's eventual acquisition of asthma.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Astrophysicists propose that mysterious "fast radio bursts" could, in very speculative theory, be produced by an antenna twice the size of Earth. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If anything's alive on the ice-covered ocean world of Europa, a future NASA mission hopes to find it.  

By sequencing DNA in Neandertal dental plaque, scientists were able to find out about their diets—and their good relations with modern humans. Christopher Intagliata reports.